BEIJING – Qualified English teachers from the Philippines will have a chance to teach in China under arrangements being made by education officials of the two countries, according to Philippine Ambassador to China Jose Santiago Sta. Romana.

By Jelly F. Musico (People's Daily Online) 09:43, July 13, 2017

"China is now planning to open opportunities for Filipinos, legitimate employment, as English teachers," Sta. Romana said in an interview with Filipino journalists in Beijing last Tuesday night.

He said there are Filipinos teaching English language in China but a lot of them teach only at the nursery, primary and elementary level.

Sta. Romana said China’s plan is to expand the definition of native English-speaking countries when it comes to hiring of foreign English teachers.

"In the past the concentration was only on the native English speaking countries.

What gave us opening is they said native speaking countries and countries colonized by these native English speaking countries.

So that applies to us.

The Philippines was colonized by the Americans so English was taught and spoken widely," he explained.

He said the Chinese education officials are now coordinating with their counterparts in the Philippines’ Department of Education (DepEd) and Commission on Higher Education (CHED) with regards to the qualification of the English Filipino teachers who can work in China.

"They are laying the ground work.

As long as you have qualification, meaning college degrees particularly in teaching English, not only in elementary and high school but also in university.

You have to have competitive degree," the envoy said.

English is one of the two languages being taught in the Philippines’ schools from elementary to college. Other language is Filipino or Tagalog.

Sta. Romana said China’s interest to the Filipino teachers can be attributed to the renewed China-Philippines relations under President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration.

"That is part of it. In a sense, what they are trying to do is how, to the basic approach, to help out the Philippines development like in infrastructures, investment, trade and also labor opportunities," he said.

Sta. Romana hoped that China’s plan to expand hiring of foreign English teachers to the Philippines will be implemented within Duterte’s term that will end in 2022.

President Duterte has temporarily shelved the arbitral tribunal’s judgment on the South China Sea to give way to friendly dialogues and bilateral cooperation between China and the Philippines.

The Duterte’s administration then pushed for two-track approach which is to separate the contentious issues on the South China Sea and the non-contentious issues.

The contentious issues, he said, are the issues of sovereignty and maritime jurisdiction including China’s nine-dash line while non-contentious issues are trade, economic, infrastructures and people-to-people exchanges.

"The non-contentious issues were frozen over the past years because the dispute has been put at the center. The basic approach now is don’t let the dispute be an obstacle to developing the non-contentious issues," he explained.

Jelly F. Musico is a reporter of the Philippine News Agency and an intern at the People's Daily Online.

Add comment

Please note your Name and Email address will not be used for any other purpose than recording your comments. Your Name and Email address will not be used for purposes of marketing or promotion in any way. All comments are approved before publishing.

Login

Why not try Cowcatcher? a Blog about the Sexes

Copyright

All articles accredited to the website Author 'The Radical' are subject to copyright and therefore if used externally from this website and in any medium, credit must be made to 'The Radical' and a link provided back to this website wapentake.org.uk. Any articles identified as 'External Source' and used externally from this website and in any medium must be accredited to the identified copyright owner stated at the end of the article.

Visitors Yearly to date

Stats on: 2020-06-01

Total visited pages: 2427

Total visitors: 2372

Average time: 00:01:49

Page per user: 1

Visitors counter

11.256

Realtime stats

Users on page:

Visitors:

Logged users:

Total users:

Thoughts of Time?

You may reflect on how the masses were subjugated by warrior bands and armies, how their leaders appointed themselves as kings and gave their friends positions of favour and authority.

How they are still subjugated today?

How many days a week do you work for the ‘state’ and how many for yourself?